Automatic brake-regulator



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

- G. WESTINGHOUSE, Jr; AUTOMATIC BRAKE REGULATOR.

No. 440,082. Patented Nov. 4, 1890 FIGJ.

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ITN E5553:

I Jaw/XL @Qr /A M 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

G. WESTINGHOUSE, Jr. AUTOMATIC BRAKE REGULATOR.

No. 440,082. Patented Nov. 4, .1890.

md E ITNESSES:

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE, JR, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

AUTOMATIC BRAK E- REG U LATO R.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 440,082, dated November4, 1890. Application filed December 1, 1888- Serial No. 292,391. (Nomodel.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE,

, J r., a citizen of the United States, residing at weight imposed uponthe wheels to which the brakes are applied; and its object is to providesimple and effective means for automatically varying and adjusting theleverage of a lever through which braking power is transmitted to acar-wheel by and in correspondence with increase or dimunition of theload borne by the wheel.

To this end my invention, generallystated, consists in the combinationof an adj ustinglever fulcrumed upon a truck member having nosubstantial degree of vertical movement, and having an arm coupled to amember of the truck or car-body, which is normally subj ect to verticalmovement by variation of load, and a brake-lever coupled to the opposite arm of the adj usting-lever and movable longitudinally relativelytoa connected brakebeam. The improvement claimed is hereinafter fully setforth.

It has been demonstrated by experience and is now well recognized thatto attain maximum efliciency in the application of brakes torailroad-wheels the force with which they are applied should not besufficiently great to cause the sliding of the wheels upon the rails,and, inasmuch as the power required to efiect the sliding of the wheelsdecreases proportionately with the decrease of load thereon, and viceversa, a corresponding diminution or increase, as the case may be, ofbraking-power becomes necessary to maintain the effectivenessof thebraking mechanism of a car, which, under the conditions of the duty forwhich it is designed, varies materially in gross weight from time totime by reason of difference in weight of or the entire absence of load.

In sytems of continuous brakes (which are now largely in use in freightservice) the application of power to the braking mechanism of theseveral cars of a train is uniform throughout, irrespective oftheirdifference in load, and while in the use of hand-brakes variationin their application upon different cars, relatively to load, is notimpossible it is necessarily a matter wholly dependent upon the goodjudgment, skill, and attention of the brakemen, and not one ofdetermined and positive regulation.

My improvement is applicable with equal facility to continuous and tosingle or noncontinuous brake apparatus and without involvin gcomplicated or expensive elements or accessories effects automaticvariation and regulation of applied braking-power in and by the actionof thevariations of load by which such variation of braking-power isdemanded;

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is an end view in elevation of acar-truck and a partial transverse section through the frame of a carsupported thereon, illustrating an application of my invention; Fig. 2,alongitudinal section through the truck; and Fig. 3, a view, partly inelevation and partly in section and on an enlarged scale, of thefulcrumsupporting pin of the adj usting-lever and the nuts thereon.

The application of my invention is herein exemplified in connection witha four-wh eeled swing-truck of the ordinary construction, having wheels1 fixed upon axles 2, rotating in suitable boxes secured in side frames,which are connected by transoms 3, under which con struction thetransoms are not subject to verti'cal movement, other than such slightdegree thereof as is due to jar in passing over low joints orinequalities in the track. The carbody, of which only the body-bolster 4and and other connected members of the truckframe, accordingly as thesprings are compressed to a greater or less degree by increase ordecrease of load carried by the car-body.

The brake-shoes 11, which are secured to brake-beams 12, are applied tothe wheels in the braking operation by brake-levers 14 15, actuated by abrake-rod or pull-rod 16, which may be connected with the piston of abrakecylinder or with the chain of a hand-brake or other suitable meansfor effecting the application of braking-power. The live-lever 14 is, asin the ordinary arrangements, coupled at its upper end to the pull-rod16, and has its opposite end connected by a lower brake rod or bar 17 tothe lower end of the deadlever 15, which is pivoted adjacent to itsupper end to a stop or guide 18, secured to one of the transoms 3.

A double-armed adjusting-lever 18 is fulcru-med on the transom adjacentto the livelever, its fulcrum-pin 19 being, for a purpose presently tobe described, coupled to a yoke formed on the upper end of a pin or stem20, which is supported by an arm or bracket 21, secured to the transom.A helical spring 22 surrounds the stem 20 and bears at its ends againstthe top of the bracket 21 and against a nut 23. engaging a thread on thestem, a lock-nut 24, engaging said thread, being also provided to securethe nut 23 in any adjusted position. Thespring 22 provides a support forthe fulcrum-pin of the adj usting-lever, which is sufficiently elasticto compensate the jars and concussions induced in passing over lowjoints and inequalities of track, and thereby to maintain thefulcrum-pin in' substantially the same horizontal plane, or, in otherwords, to render it practically exempt from vertical movement. By meansof the nut 23 and lock-nut 24 the fulcrum-pin 19 of the lever 18 may bevaried and adjusted in vertical position, as may from time to time'berequired. The adjusting-lever. 18 is coupled at or near one end to abracket 25, bolted to the truck-bolster 6, or to a portion of thecar-body which rests thereon, so that the bracket and the connected endof the adj usting-lever may be-raised and lowered with the bolster andcar-body in the vertical movements of the latter due to the compressionand extension of the truck-springs under increase and decrease of loadof the car, respectively. The opposite arm of the adj usting-lever is inturn coupled bya rod or link 26 to the brake-lever 14, so that downwardor upward movement of the end of the adj usting-lever, which isconnected to the bracket 25, will, respectively, coincidentiy andproportionately raise or lower the brake-lever, in order to effectcorresponding variation of its leverage on the brake-beam 12 andconnected brake-shoes 11, through which the braking-power exerted uponthe brake-lever is transmitted and applied to the Wheels. Thebrake-lever and brake-beam are coupled in any suitable manner adapted toadmit of the longitudinal movement of the former relatively to thelatter, which is required for such variation of leverage. In thisinstance the pin 27, by which the brake-lever is coupled to thebrakebeam, and which is fixed in an arm 30, secured to the brake-beam,ispivoted in ablock or die 28, which is fitted freely in a longitudinalslot or guideway 29 in the brake-lever. As an equivalent constructionthe brake-lever maybe fitted to slide freely in the brake-beam bracketand to bear against lateral stops or abutments thereon. The raising andloweringof the brake -lever will consequently shorten and lengthen,respectively, its resistance-arn1-that is to say, the distance betweenits fulcrum-pivot on the lower brakerod 17 and the coupling-pivot 27 ofthe brakebeam and under equal exertion of brakingpower upon thebrake-lever from the pullrod 16 will cause a greater or less pressure tobe applied to the wheels in accordance with and proportionately to thegreater or less weight which may be supported thereon.

While I have illustrated my improvement as applied only to thelive-lever of the brake mechanism,it will be obvious that correspondingadjustment of leverage of the dead-lever may be correspondingly aifectedby the employment in connection therewith of a construction similar orequivalent to that described and shown.

I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. Thecombination, in abrake mechanism, of a brake beam and shoes, abrake-lever coupled thereto with the capacity of longitudinal movementrelatively to said brake beam and shoes, and an adj usting-leverfulcrumed upon a truck member having no substantial degree of verticalmovement and coupled at opposite ends to a car-body or to a member of atruck which is normally sub ject to vertical movement by variation ofload, and to the brake-le ver, respectively, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination, in a brake mechanism, of a brake-beam and connectedbrake-shoes, a brake-lever provided with a longitudinal slot orguideway, a block pivoted to the brake-beam and fitting said slot, adoublearmed adj usting-leverfulcrumed upon a truck member having nosubstantial degree of vertical movement, an arm or bracket which issecured to a portion of a car-body or to a truck member supporting thesame and normally movable vertically therewith and is coupled to one armof the adjusting-lever, and a rod or link coupling the opposite arm ofthe adjusting-lever to the brake-lever, substantially as set forth.

3. The combination,in abrake mechanism, of a brake beam and shoes, abrake-lever coupled thereto with the capacity of relative longitudinalmovement, an adj usting-lever coupled to the brake-lever, and a springinterposed between the fulcrum of the adjust ing-lever and a truokmemberhaving no subspectively, a rod or stem coupled by a fulstantial degreeof vertical movement, sub- 'crum-pin to the adjusting-lever,anda springstantially as set forth. supporting said rod or stem upon a truck 4. ihecombination, in abrake mechanism, member having no substantial degree ofver- 15 5 of a brake beam and shoes, a brake-lever I tical movement,substantially as set forth.

coupled thereto with the capacity of relative In testimony whereof Ihave hereunto set longitudinal movement, a double-armed admy hand.

justing-lever coupled at opposite ends to a GEO. WESTINGHOUSE, JR.oar-body or to a member of a truck which is Witnesses: 1o normallysubject to vertical. movement by W. D. UPTEGRAFF,

variation of load and to the brake-lever, re- J. SNOWDEN BELL.

